Google has shown a strong commitment to improving the search experience for its users, and AI has been a key figure in its strategy. The latest addition to enhance search is Google’s AI Mode tab. At Google I/O 2025, Elizabeth Reid, Head of Search, introduced it as “Search transformed with Gemini 2.5 at its core”.
What Is the AI Mode Tab?
This new feature combines what AI Overviews does with advanced reasoning, thinking, and multimodal capabilities. Instead of AI-analyzed answers appearing at the top of the search results in the All tab, AI Mode is a separate tab under the Google Search bar. Unlike the other tabs, it appears before the All tab, and is always on the left.
Users can type in complex queries and get refined results once they select the AI Mode tab. Upon pressing enter, users will be shown an AI-summarized answer to their queries, along with links to the sites from which the information is taken. What makes it more adaptable and easier to use is that users can now ask follow-up questions.
Why Is It Fixed in Place?
As per the Google communications team, the AI Mode tab has been placed there due to users’ demand to make its location predictable. This way, users will always know exactly where to tap or click for AI answers when searching. The other tabs will keep shifting to accommodate different types of queries.
Launch and Roll Out
Currently, Google’s AI Mode tab is live in the US after months of opt-in testing in Labs. It will gradually be rolled out in other countries. In the time it is released globally, Google will also be testing how ads will appear in this new search tab.
What This Means for Search
As was the case with AI Overviews, the AI Mode tab will have differing impacts on different groups of people.
Search Users: They will receive simpler and more accurate responses in less time. The set of links that will be shown to them will also be more relevant to their exact search query. AI Mode is founded on the quality and ranking systems of Google.
Brands and Website Owners: To appear in the AI responses, they will have to optimize their pages and content for it. As there is a chance users may not go to the All tab to look at the top ten links, it will not be enough to just rank high in search.
Google: While it’s still in its early stages, AI Mode will become a key part of search. The search engine will be pushing for more AI Overview answers and anticipates that a large number of users will be trying and, eventually, repeatedly using the new search mode.
Possible Pros and Cons of Google’s AI Mode tab
Pros:
– Provides better, more accurate, and faster AI-enabled responses.
– Even links that show up in the second or third SERP can be shown along with the answers, depending on quality and relevancy.
– Along with high-quality web content, users can also get real-time information about the real world and shopping data for billions of products.
Cons:
– It may cause the loss of some traffic that would have come from users going through the All tab.
– As of now, Google hasn’t provided a way for link clicks from the AI Mode tab to be tracked, as per reports from SEOs in the US.
Google says that its decision to consistently place the AI Mode tab before all other tabs was driven by user demand. This can be taken as a sign that AI search will become a part of customers’ daily lives in the coming years. With even the search engines pushing for the development and use of their AI features, brands will have to get creative with how to integrate and optimize themselves into AI-powered responses on search.